{"id":426955,"date":"2026-09-05T07:42:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/426955\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T07:42:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T07:42:44","slug":"talarico-plans-texas-food-drive-to-counterprogram-trumps-gop-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/426955\/","title":{"rendered":"Talarico plans Texas food drive to counterprogram Trump&#8217;s GOP convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico plans to hold a statewide food drive next week as Republicans descend on Dallas for President Donald Trump&#8217;s midterm convention.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe &#8220;Love Thy Neighbor&#8221; food drive is intended to draw a contrast with the GOP gathering and highlight rising grocery prices, a key focus of Talarico&#8217;s campaign against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Next week, billionaire donors and their puppet politicians will gather at a convention in Dallas to toast their own corruption,&#8221; Talarcio said on social media. &#8220;In the shadow of this Billionaire Ball, we&#8217;ll be collecting food to help Texans struggling with rising grocery prices.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nThe campaign will collect donations at sites in Dallas, Plano, Glenn Heights, Fort Worth and Denton from Sunday through Tuesday. On Wednesday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/talaricofortexas\/event\/1025676\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">volunteers will distribute food<\/a> from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Frederick Douglass Human Services and Justice Center in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe campaign is also collecting donations Tuesday at sites <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mobilize.us\/talaricofortexas\/event\/1026415\/?referring_vol=11703929&amp;share_context=dashboard-event-details&amp;sharer_role=2\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">elsewhere across the state<\/a>, including El Paso, McAllen, Lubbock, Eagle Pass, Harlingen and Tyler.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe convention is also serving as a major fundraising opportunity for Republicans. Some lawmakers are being charged $25,000 for a package that includes two convention tickets, a hotel room and access to a welcome reception, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/02\/gop-midterm-convention-attendance-01061286\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">POLITICO<\/a>. The RNC is separately asking donors for $250,000 to attend a roundtable with Trump and more than $88,000 for a photo with the president, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/politics\/elections\/an-88-600-photo-with-trump-gop-hopes-to-raise-millions-during-convention-ea336f52\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Wall Street Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe competing events come as affordability has become a central issue in the Senate race. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/politics\/election-2026\/2026\/08\/10\/559012\/james-talarico-ken-paxton-poll-houston\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Talarico has proposed<\/a> raising the minimum wage, expanding overtime pay and providing universal child care, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonpublicmedia.org\/articles\/news\/politics\/election-2026\/2026\/08\/06\/558737\/paxton-talarico-houston-campaign-stop-texas-senate-economy-affordability\/\" class=\"Link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Paxton&#8217;s economic plan<\/a> calls for eliminating property taxes for homeowners, cutting state spending and regulations, and expanding oil and gas production to lower energy costs.\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2026 KERA News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico plans to hold a statewide food drive next week as Republicans descend&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":426956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-426955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}